


Maybe the real friends were the Hollows we abducted along the way.

by IceBreeze



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23827240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBreeze/pseuds/IceBreeze
Summary: So there is a heartbeat when Lilynette does not have one, there is someone carrying him when Lilynette is not able to, and when Starrk breathes in he tastes old spice, sake, and evergreens, the scents lingering at the back of his mouth like a touch. These are not scents you can find in Hueco Mundo, which means that whoever is carrying Starrk is from the outside.The outside does not tend to be friendly to Hollows, let alone ones as powerful as Starrk.…maybe if Starrk stays asleep the problem will go away.“Oi, Starrk!” yelled Lilynettes voice, from somewhere to his left, “I know you’re awake, you lazy ass! Open your eyes already!”In which, a few years after Starrk and Lilynette didn't die in the battle of False Karakura, there is a reunion in Hueco Mundo.(Or: Starrk gets princess carried, Lilynette gets annoyed, and Kyouraku indulges in some mild abduction).
Relationships: Kyouraku Shunsui/Coyote Starrk, Lilynette Gingerbuck & Coyote Starrk
Comments: 29
Kudos: 236





	Maybe the real friends were the Hollows we abducted along the way.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this on my phone when i was supposed to be paying attention to a seminar. I dunno man I just want Starrk to be princess carried. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Starrk wakes up to the beat of a heart and the warmth of being held.

In different circumstances, this would have been a very pleasant thing to wake up to. There would have been nothing alarming about it, no reason for Starrk to stiffen as he so does. In different circumstances, this would have been perfectly normal.

These are not different circumstances, and so this is a very alarming thing for Starrk to wake up to. It is alarming because the only person who could be near enough to Starrk to carry him is Lilynette, and Lilynette doesn't have a heart. They are both hollows after all- the same hollow, split into two- and thus there is no warmth to their skin, a hole in their chests where a heart should have been. There is nobody they know who could have hearts, not since Aizen betrayed them in the battle back whenever it was.

(And oh, how that had hurt; companionship offered only to be taken away. They had trusted him unconditionally, trusted the one who had promised them friends, and he threw them all at the Shinigami to die.

Starrk had nearly lost Lilynette that day- had nearly lost part of his soul- and it was only the Shinigami Captain’s moment of hesitance that let the two of them escape, dragging Harribel and her fraccion with them.

“Why did you help me,” she had demanded, angry and wounded and distressed, “Aizen was lying to us all along- any alliance between us Arranncar is null and void.”

“Because,” Lilynette had said, Starrk staring out into the middle distance beside her, “you’re our friends, even if its only us who thinks that way. Friends don’t let friends die.”

Harribel had been quiet at that, staring at them like they’re something she doesn’t know what to make of. That’s fair. Nobody really knows what to make of them; they’re a strange pair, after all).

It is also alarming because Lilynette is not capable of carrying Starrk. She is smaller than him, after all, small enough that if they were human she’d probably be a child. If anyone ever does carrying it’s usually Starrk, and now that the espada got disbanded they’ve returned to being alone in the place they used to settle. Harribel comes to visit them sometimes, and Grimmjow is often seen, but Harribel wouldn’t touch them without permission and if it was Grimmow, Starrk would have probably been woken up already. Anyone else would have died upon coming in contact with the vibe check of their reaitsu, another skeleton to the pile.

(They’re not as alone as before, but its still a lonely world- two hollows and the mountain of bones they built up over the years.

They’re not alone anymore, except in all the ways they are).

So there is a heartbeat when Lilynette does not have one, there is someone carrying him when Lilynette is not able to, and when Starrk breathes in he tastes old spice, sake, and evergreens, the scents lingering at the back of his mouth like a touch. These are not scents you can find in Hueco Mundo, which means that whoever is carrying Starrk is from the outside.

The outside does not tend to be friendly to Hollows, let alone ones as powerful as Starrk.

…maybe if Starrk stays asleep the problem will go away.

“Oi, Starrk!” yelled Lilynettes voice, from somewhere to his left, “I know you’re awake, you lazy ass! Open your eyes already!”

Well. That’s a no, then.

It’s a shame.

Life is always so much easier when you’re not awake to deal with it.

Sighing the deep, guttural sigh only someone truly lazy could ever hope to achieve, Starrk opened his eyes, pushing his face away from the chest it was resting against so he could get a better look at the situation.

What greeted him was a smile. It was a very familiar smile on a very familiar face, complete with a very familiar hat, and amongst all the ways to wake up, finding yourself in the arms of someone who nearly killed you is definitely amongst the worst. And for all that the kimono man had showed mercy for just that second long enough, he is still a Shinigami-a Captain!- and Shinigami have no mercy for Hollows.

So Starrk was currently being carried by a man who is already proven himself sharp as his blades, and as tricky too.

A Shinigami Captain who’d already beaten them once and had apparently come to finish the job.

Well, shit.

“Well, shit,” Starrk said, and he didn’t need to see Lilynette glaring down at him to know that she was annoyed. He could feel it after all, can always sense her, and so their connection does a far better job at conferring the knot of annoyance and fear she’s currently feeling than her expression can ever hope to.

She still glares, though. She likes doing things that humans do; it makes her feel like she’s one of them. Like maybe, if she pretends hard enough, the two of them could return to being something a little more alive.

Lilynette had probably gotten most of the fucks to give, when they split. Starrk doesn’t remember the last time he felt that strongly over anything.

“Awake now, handsome?” the Captain asks, and for all that Starrk cant remember his name he remembers this voice. It’s a pleasant voice, low and cheerful, as if every word is a toy and the mouth its playground, as if the world were a stage and he had been born to sing. It was a pleasant voice at least as far as Starrk’s skewed frame of reference indicated, and under other circumstances he might have basked in it.

As it were, these are not other circumstances, and Starrk is still being carried across Hueco Mundo towards whatever destination this Captain so sees fit.

“Unfortunately,” and it is dry, it is tired, it is honest.

Starrk has always been honest. He wonders if that too is a thing he will have to lose in a life as endless as this.

The Shinigami laughs then, warm and delighted even with Lilynette kicking at his back with enough desperation she’s probably ruined his fancy looking kimono, and Starrk resists the urge to sway towards the sound as if it will warm him up, too.

He hasn't been warm since Aizen betrayed them.

“As delightful as ever, Primera-San. I’m sure you’ll like it in Soul Society.”

And oh.

That’s not good.

That’s not good at all.

Have the Shinigami decided that they were no longer okay with having the Espada roaming free? There aren’t many explanations for a Shinigami bringing Arrancar back to the hubbub of their enemies, and none of them are good. Most of them involve death, and Starrk wasn’t very keen on the idea of Lilynette dying. Starrk himself dying? That he doesn’t mind so much, but that would also mean leaving Lilynette alone and she wouldn’t like that.

She wouldn’t like that at all, and for all that they have what could be called friends now, Harribbel and Grimmjow wouldn’t be able to do much against the entirety of Shinigami society.

Starrk may actually have to fight.

Fighting is never a fun time, and Starrk has never enjoyed it.

 _Lilynette_ , Starrk thought, _What’s going on?_

 _I don’t know!_ She sent back, _I woke up slung over his shoulder like this! He must have grabbed us in our sleep._

Outloud, Lilynette said, “Oi, you old hobo! You pink bastard! Two sworded jerk! Where are you taking us? What the fuck is going on?”

“Maa, so aggressive! My name is Kyouraku Shunsui, you know,” and this light hearted statement was immediately followed by a grunt as Lilynette nailed him right in a kidney. “I’m sure I told you this.”

“Why the fuck would we remember the name of a jerk like you! You’re pink and a bastard, that’s good enough! Oi Starrk, tell him! Tell him he sucks!”

“You are very pink, Captain-san,” Starrk agreed.

Kyouraku laughed, and his eyes were soft, dirt warmed up by the sun, the warmth of springtime and forests, warm like the gentle rip of his arms and the press of his chest against Starrk’s and if Starrk still had a heartbeat, it would have been shuddering under the weight of a flower bud starting to bloom.

Kyouraku was warm and he was soft and cradled in his arms like this, Starrk felt like this might be dangerous for him in a completely different way.

Starrk had always felt too much too quickly, and Kyouraku was very easy to fall for.

“I can't argue with that logic,” Kyouraku said, as good natured as ever. “And to answer your earlier question, I suddenly found myself promoted and in light of this, I felt it was time that Soul Society fosters a better relation with our neighbours. All the surviving Espada are welcomed to come and go as they please, and will be counted as having the same freedom as Kurosaki.”

Lilynette squinted, and Starrk felt her confusion lurking at the edges of his mind. “Why are you kidnapping us then?”

“Captains have been sent out to find and inform the Espada, and to welcome them to Soul Society.”

“That’s not answering our question, Captain-san,” Starrk said, at the same time Lilynette began to consider the pros and cons of biting a Shinigami’s head off. They had such fragile skin compared to Hollows, after all. It would be so easy to just- chomp, and then bye bye bastard.

Kyouraku hummed, low and deep, and Starrk wondered whether all Shinigami were cunning bastards or if a very specific niche gravitated towards Hollows. Honesty did not seem to come easily to them, to these creatures with swords in their souls and smiles that hid death, but Starrk could not could not find any threat in the body holding his, could not smell ill intent in that old spice-evergreen blend.

Starrk felt like he could trust Kyouraku didn’t mean harm, but he’d trusted Aizen once, too.

Starrk didn’t have a good record with trusting Shinigami.

“I wanted to be sure you’d come,” Kyouraku said, eventually. “And it was easier to make sure you’d listen, this way. I didn’t want to fight you again.”

“We never wanted to fight in the first place.”

“I know.” And then, “It’s rare that I find myself liking an enemy, Starrk-san. Rarer still that I can’t get them out of my mind. I abducted you because now Soul Society’s gates are open to you, and I am a selfish man who very much wants you to make it your home.”

And Starrk knew deep down to the very roots of his soul that this was true. That this was an offering of sunlight in this world that only knew darkness, the opening of a ribcage to let Starrk prod at the heart that beats within. This was a kindness given and a kindness that would stay, the scheme of a man who wanted Starrk and Lilynette to be by his side.

This was the promise of companionship and so much more, and Starrk felt the tug in his mind, the tug of Lilynette’s tremulous hope, and knew that it was a promise they so desperately wanted.

“If we join you, Captain-san,” Starrk said, quiet, so very quiet, the voice of a creature pieced together with dreams, loneliness and duct-tape, “then you’re committing to forever.”

“Yeah,” Lilynette said, and for all that her voice was fierce, her emotions were something more desperate, more melancholy, “No take backs! If you try and get rid of us, then you may as well just kill us.”

 _Don’t hurt us where we’ve been hurt before,_ they didn’t say, but Kyouraku heard it just fine. Kyouraku heard it because he listened to them in the way no-one has ever listened to them before, and so he tightened his grip on Starrk slightly, hummed once more.

“That’s fine with me,” Kyouraku said, the smile audible in his voice, “I’ve never been very good at letting go of the things I like, after all.”

“That sounds nice,” Lilynette said for the both of them, putting the tangle of emotion shared between them into words far too small, far too inadequate. “You can continue abducting us, then.”

A chuckle, the brush of silk against Starrk’s cheek. “Shall we head towards forever, then?”

“Mm,” Starrk said. “I’m going back to sleep.”

And so Starrk closed his eyes, drifting off as he has a thousand times before and will do a thousand times again. Only this time, he drifts off with the murmur of voices in his ears and the warmth of a body holding him, gentle hands for a gentle heartbeat.

Starrk closed his eyes, safe in the knowledge that he wasn’t alone, safe in the arms of someone who had promised him something more valuable than all the riches in the world.

Starrk closed his eyes, cradled in Kyouraku’s arms, and when he fell asleep it was with a smile on his face, hope nestled in the hole of his chest.

Starrk fell asleep as he’d woken up: to the beat of a heart and the warmth of being held.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is [@polyhymina.](http://polyhymina.tumblr.com/)
> 
> My twitter is[@littlemisswrit3.](https://twitter.com/littlemisswrit3)


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